On a basic level, using the player’s gaze to “look where you want to go” seemed like a very simple and natural place to start. In Manifest 99, you are aboard a train that is full of crows, and you can teleport to any crow by peering into their glowing eyes. Connecting the gaze-based teleportation to the narrative meaning of locking eyes with another living creature created the marriage of mechanic and story that we were looking for.

You quickly learn that the crows aren’t the only ones on this train: there are other weary travelers that you will encounter. Our mechanic continued to evolve from the notion that we cross paths with many other lives every day, but often don’t even look into each other’s eyes, even if for just a moment.